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Every year we take a group of high school kids up to camp in Rhinelander Wisconsin. They have all sorts of activities to choose from; archery, arts and crafts, water skiing and of course fishing. As you can imagine, I’m usually the guy that takes the group that wants to fish. It is by far my favorite part of camp. I love to see these kids that don’t have a lot of experiences being outdoors getting excited about activities like archery and fishing. To these kids it doesn’t matter if they’re catching little blue gill or crappie or hard fighting smallmouth. This year however, we had a significantly better year of fishing and I attribute this success to our Elysian Fishing rods.

I was fortunate enough to begin working with Elysian Fishing during this year’s FLW Tour season. Elysian Fishing is a relatively new rod company headed by Aaron Smith. During my initial interview with Aaron, I was impressed by the focus he had on producing quality products at affordable prices and providing top notch customer service to those who purchase Elysian Fishing rods.

As I said, Elysian Fishing is relatively new, and as such their product line is continuing to grow and improve. They have already made a huge splash in the ever growing Kayak fishing arena. Their Yak Life Series of fishing rods are specifically designed for the needs of kayak anglers. Although this is not my area of expertise, I have heard from many kayak fishermen that absolutely love their Elysian Yak Life Series fishing rods.

What I can tell you from firsthand experience is that the Alpha Series rods from Elysian Fishing are the best intermediate level rods I have ever fished with. This year I overhauled all of the schools fishing equipment and re-rigged everything with the Elysian Alpha Series 6’6” Med. Action spinning rods. I set up a variety of rods to do everything from pan fishing with bobbers to throwing senkos and dropshots for smallmouth bass.

Now as I’ve said, the kids just love catching fish. So the first group I took out we just started pan fishing. They had a ball! Literally close to a hundred fish. At times, I was so busy taking fish off hooks and baiting hooks, I couldn’t fish myself. The casting, sensitivity and comfort of the Alpha Series rod was great. But let’s face it that was pan fishing. Then I took a big chance and brought a group out to look for smallmouth. Now remember, these are inexperienced anglers throwing senkos, ned rigs and dropshots for the light bite of a smallmouth bass in late summer in upper Wisconsin.

The results were a magnificent surprise! That hour long trip lead to four keeper smallmouth (including a four pounder and a three pound fish). We also caught two pike including a 36” fish that made the eyes of the student that caught him almost pop out of his head when I lifted him in the boat without the aid of a net.

The rod’s sensitivity allowed me to teach the kids what the subtle bite of a smallie felt like and the strength and power handled the big four pounder as it jumped and broke the surface five times while being landed to a chorus of screams and cheers from a boat full of proud young anglers.

If my words have not done an adequate job of expressing how well the Elysian Alpha Series rods performed, please look at the pictures that accompany this article. Look at the fish for sure. But look at the faces of the kids. The pride and excitement of catching fish like this is evident in these pictures.

The Alpha Series rods from Elysian Fishing are great rods for intermediate fisherman at very affordable prices. Thank you to Aaron and Elysian Fishing for supplying our school with these rods, but more importantly, thank you for the memories they helped to make during our week up in northern Wisconsin.

A buddy of mine stores his boat in my barn and last night I happened to find him; legs sticking out over the gunnel, head buried in the battery compartment of his boat. I heard cussing and muttering well before I got close enough to determine what he was doing. As we talked he described how one of his batteries had gone bad. He had noticed over the last month or two that it was taking longer for his on board charging unit to fully recharge his trolling motor batteries and that finally he noticed it was one battery in particular that was failing to fully charge.

I shared with him how I had had the same exact experience several years ago when I had ordered a boat from the factory and the dealer had installed his brand of batteries in that boat rather than me designating what brand batteries I wanted installed.

Then I looked in his boat and immediately told him to go over to my current boat (a 2018 Ranger 521L) and look inside the battery compartment. The difference was clear. My boat had five Optima Batteries, all fully charged and ready to go.

I have been running Optima batteries for years, and except for the year that the dealer installed a different brand battery in that boat, I have been extremely happy with Optima’s performance.

The fact is, as a touring pro; we put a tremendous amount of wear on our batteries. Long practice days followed by critical tournament days mean not only a lot of use and draining batteries to their limit before short periods of charging to get them back up to their maximum potential to repeat the process over and over again. Also, there is a lot riding on those batteries performing at their peak ability on tournament days. With my Optima batteries, I have never had a tournament day that has negatively been effected by my batteries staying power.

Now you may have noticed that I said earlier that I run five Optima Batteries in my boat. This is the first season that I have done that, and it won’t be the last. I have found that the trolling motors aren’t the only drain on batteries. If you’re like me and you run four graphs (2 Humminbird 12’s at the console and a 10” and 12” Humminbird up front) I suggest running a second Optima Battery in parallel on your cranking battery.  There is nothing more frustrating than having plenty of juice to your trolling motor, but having your graphs go out during the last hours of the day because you’ve worn down your cranking battery. This solution has worked great during this last season and I plan to continue this practice in the coming years.

My buddy wisely chose to replace his dead battery with an Optima battery and I hope for your sake, you will do the same.

Last year, my first season on tour, I was excited to be supported by PROcise Outdoors, the makers of the Dek-it Stacker mount and the Dual Dek-it Dash mounts. These products were very important to me for this reason. Being a little older than some of my counterparts on tour, my eyes have started to show their age, I need things a little bigger to see the details on my graphs easily and clearly. My Humminbird Helix 12’s are perfect for giving me that clear view. With Side Imaging and Down Scan along with Navionics GPS mapping I have all the information I need while sitting behind the wheel in my Ranger 521L, and the Dual Dek-it Mount held the two big Helix 12’s right in front of me where I wanted.

 The problem was the factory installed dash plate that came on the ranger. It wasn’t sturdy enough to hold the weight of the two graphs in that position. Now this isn’t the fault of Ranger. The plates weren’t designed for that use. We needed a new product to replace the factory installed dash plate to use with the PROcise Dual Dek-it mounts. This is where Scott Pellegrin from PROcise came in. With some samples and specs, he designed a dash and bow plate specifically created for the 2018 Ranger 521 that has the thickness, durability and finished look to mount the Dual Dek-it mounts to and hold the two big graphs (of any manufacture) securely and without rattles or shakes.

I fished the first event this year on the Big O and everything worked great! One full screen Helix was set as my GPS so I had the mapping I needed to navigate the rim canals and narrow boat lanes. If you’ve ever been on Okeechobee you know it all looks the same! The other Helix had my screen split between Side Imaging, Down Scan and Sonar for reading bottom contour.

Now the best news…They are available to anyone!

If you have looked at the line-up of products from PROcise Outdoors and thought they looked interesting but didn’t know how you would mount them on your Ranger you now have the answer. Please give Scott a call at (715) 829-0885 and ask him about the new bow and console plates available for Ranger boats. It’s a great way to increase the functionality of your locators, improve your fishing and increase the resale value of your boat. Check out the full line of PROcise products at www.prociseoutdoors.com.

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As you may have noticed through many of my social media posts, I have been spending quite a bit of time with the EZ Kut Products Company in the last few months. I have gotten to know Jerry Milos and Scott Bast the owners of EZ Kut Products. I have learned about their products and I have had the opportunity to travel to a few festivals and shows and meet the customers who purchase and swear by the quality of these products. Being at these shows, I see visitors come by the EZ Kut booth and try the EZ Kut Pruners. They learn how the ratcheting action and the carbide steel blade make “EZ” work of any size branch or limb. Then they actually put a pair in their hands and try them out. Inevitably the next thing they say is “Wow”. They can’t believe the tool works so efficiently and smoothly. I have had more than one visitor question whether or not we were using real wood to demonstrate the products. (I assure you it’s real wood folks!)

The loppers work using the same ratcheting action and have the same carbide steel blade. With extending handles, the loppers allow consumers to extend their reach two fold in order to get those hard to reach branches or cut saplings at the base without having to bend down.

I mentioned the reaction that visitors have when they see these tools in action. Wow! EZ Kuts named their new folding saw “The Wow Saw” for just that reason. Vented teeth and a tapered blade prevent binding and the saw will literally go through a one inch thick branch in about four/five pulls.

Jerry and Scott stand behind all of their products and offer a lifetime guarantee on every product they sell. More importantly they are avid outdoorsmen. In addition, Scott is an accomplished horseman. This translates to an ever changing line up of products that have unique applications for the needs of hunters, riders and home owners dealing with the arduous task of yard

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My real field experience came last season when my buddy Dave and our boys set up and cleared six new tree stands for the Wisconsin gun deer season. Clearing shooting lanes both in trees and from the ground was quick work and carrying all the tools in the handy sling pack made it a breeze to haul every tool throughout the eighty acre property. The way they have designed the sling pack, you can access the tool you need, use the tool and then replace it in the pack without having to put the tool or the pack on the ground. No more lost tools in the deer woods!

I’m very happy to be affiliated with EZ Kut Products. Their tools are quality made and guaranteed for life, by people that are genuinely good people who love the outdoors and take customer satisfaction very seriously.